Q-Why did you choose to participate as an artist for the Art Auction?
A- “While I’m not too involved with Wolfe’s Neck, it’s such a special place, and you’re doing all sorts of good things for the planet, the land, and Maine. I’m just happy to help in any tiny way that I can to support the organization.”
Q- What inspires you?
A-“I’ve always loved photographing children, even as a kid. I photographed my younger brother with my Kodak Instamatic when I was a small child. And then, in college I studied fine art photography, and my focus somehow ended up still being children. And over the years and decades children have remained a focus, first my own, and now other people’s kids.
There’s something about just capturing childhood for me. I had a somewhat non traditional childhood myself, so I think it all stems from that. My mother was very sick when I was a kid but we had beautiful family photos from before she got ill, and I think those images somehow triggered my interest in photographing children. So… I’ve been photographing kids for a long time now.
I shoot a lot of commercial work, but for my own work I keep landing on these really simple projects, like this, “A Good Fortune Collection” (donated photo). This project was actually came to life after a client asked me to photograph her collection of fortune cookie fortunes. Soon there after I found myself making and then photographing my own fortunes.
When my own kids were young, my personal work pretty much revolved around them but now I seem to be honing in on objects… small things that I find beauty in. I really don’t know why, but there’s something about elevating a tiny special object and taking it to another level, with a beautiful photograph/print, and the bigger the better.
I’m so lucky that I get to balance my own work with the work in my studio that varies from day to day… with commercial work, portrait work, and lots of kids/family photography.”
Q-Do you have a process of making kids feel more comfortable during shoots? Are they ever nervous or intimidated?
A- “Somehow its not intimidating! And I really don’t know why, I always think to myself that my own kids couldn’t have done this. You would think that going into a photo studio might be scary for kids, but somehow it always works. I feel like I get lucky a lot. Lucky with the kids who walk in the door, lucky that their parents have prepared them well, I’m honestly not sure how it works so well. I’m always kind of shocked that a kid will walk in here and an hour and a half later we will have taken about a thousand pictures, and everyone still in one piece and usually will have had a lot of fun. I try to just have them play and then I just catch what I can. It also ends up being somewhat collaborative and by the end the kids are suggesting poses, costume ideas, etc. We all have a good time.”
Q- Is this your first time participating in the art auction?
A- “No, I’ve participated a few times before and am honored to have work seen by that crowd at Wolfe’s Neck Center and helping in any way that I can.”
Q- Have you always worked in this medium?
A- “Yes, as I said, I loved taking pictures as a kid. And then when I was about 13 my father gave me an enlarger for Christmas, and we turned a bathroom in our house into somewhat of a darkroom. That was it, being able to print just made it that much for fun. Then I set up a darkroom at my school, and then of course I was the yearbook editor. And then in college majored in Art History and Fine Arts, which for me meant photography. I was so fortunate, it was an incredible program led by Emmet Godwin, who is still my very favorite photographer.
After college I really didn’t have much of a plan but tried to get work photographing families and children. Somehow this soon led to wedding work, which I never saw on the coming. I then shot weddings for a while in Boston and then moved to NYC, where I continued to shoot weddings and also loads of parties, etc. I shot a lot for MoMA and The NYC Ballet so spend a few nights a week at those two venues. I had a great time doing that, I love capturing special moments, so at at these events I felt like a kid in a candy shop. We had our son in NYC but then moved to Portland for my husband’s job. Two more kids arrived in pretty quick succession, so my wedding work sort of became a thing of the past. I returned to photographing kids whenever I could and then it wasn’t until my kids were much older that I really dove back into photography full time. And that’s pretty much where I am now! Hope the auction goes so well.”
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